Aussie pool queen Cate Campbell reveals a contraceptive almost ENDED her swimming career

Australian swim star Cate Campbell has revealed she has permanent nerve damage in her right arm  – after previously using a contraceptive device to manage her periods when competing for Olympic gold.

Campbell, 30, spoke on her podcast Here If You Need as she seeks to end women’s menstrual cycles being a taboo topic of discussion in wider society.

‘It’s not something I’ve ever really spoken about but it quite literally could have ended my career,’ she said.

‘It’s actually had a real impact on me. ‘I wanted to look at how I could manage my periods because I didn’t want to race when I had my period, so I tried to explore a few options.’

Campbell – a four-time Olympian – opted to insert a progesterone bar in her inner right arm four years ago.

Australian swim star Cate Campbell has permanent nerve damage in her right arm – after using a contraceptive device to manage her periods when competing

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Campbell, 30, spoke on her podcast Here If You Need as she seeks to end menstrual cycles being a taboo topic of discussion 

She admitted it went ‘terribly wrong’ – and now has to endure permanent nerve damage down the right side of her arm.

Campbell added it is ‘so important to talk about female health and talk about the things that we have to go through and how that impacts us.’

The pool sprinter also took to Instagram this week with an accompanying image of severe bruising on her arm.

‘In 2018, I suffered a near career-ending injury, partly because discussions around periods and female health problems were taboo,’ she posted.

‘Fortunately, this is changing – but there is still a long way to go.’

In October, Campbell also bravely stated she had ‘a complete emotional breakdown’ just weeks before the Tokyo Olympics, where she won two gold medals.

She courageously opened up about her struggles with mental health, revealing she was in such a dark place, all it took was a minor electrical inconvenience for her to completely break down.

Growing up in the African country of Malawi before moving to Queensland with her family at the age of nine, Campbell has won five Olympic, four World Championship and six Commonwealth Games gold medals for Australia – but despite all her success in the pool, there has been moments of dreadful lows.

‘I started medication just four weeks before the Tokyo Olympics, because I realised I wasn’t managing my anxiety and depression,’ she told Channel 9’s The Today Show.

‘I had a complete emotional breakdown because the power in my house tripped, and I was sobbing and crying on the floor, and I was like: hang on, this is not a normal reaction to the power tripping. There is something going on here.

‘And I think that it took me getting to that point, it took me pushing myself to my absolute breaking point, before I decided to seek help or support.

‘I reached out and I made an appointment to see a psychologist, and I was able to fortunately get in very quickly and started seeing them regularly.’